Fifteen Wainwrights and No Running

17th to 20th July. Four days in the Lakes, based in Coniston. 56km on foot, around 3,300m of climbing and 15 Wainwrights.

Not a single step of running, which is the part I'd have found hardest to believe two months ago.

Why I was walking and not running

My last run was the 27th of June. The Achilles that started grumbling after the Lakes in May got worse after the Hartlepool Half, and by the end of June it had stopped me completely.

It feels fine walking. That was the thing I wasn't expecting. I could feel it on some of the steeper hills, but nothing that made me stop or turn around. The physio has told me I need to start loading it more, which is not what you assume you'll be told about an injury.

Running is still out. So the Lakes it was.

Harter Fell and Green Crag

Me and Michaela for the first two days. We started down in Eskdale with Harter Fell and Green Crag. 12km and around 700m of climbing, two Wainwrights, and a gentle way into the week.

Skiddaw

This was my favourite walk of the trip and probably the best day I've had on the fells this year.

Coniston to Skiddaw is not a short drive. It's the far north of the Lakes and we were staying in the south, so it was an early start for a hill you can see from the car park half an hour before you get to it.

The route up over Ullock Pike, Long Side and Carl Side is the good way to do Skiddaw. You get a ridge instead of the tourist path, and the summit arrives having actually earned it. Add Bakestall on the way down and it's five Wainwrights, 14km and just over 900m.

Six above Ullswater

My mum joined us for the last two days, and day three was the big one. 19km and around 950m around the fells above Ullswater: Steel Knotts, Wether Hill, Loadpot Hill, Bonscale Pike, Arthur's Pike and Hallin Fell.

Six Wainwrights in a day. It's a quieter corner of the Lakes than the bits everyone photographs, and after two days on the popular fells that was the point.

Silver How and Loughrigg

We finished with a gentler one out of Grasmere. Silver How and Loughrigg Fell, 12km and just under 700m, two more Wainwrights and legs that had done enough by then.

Where that leaves things

Fifteen Wainwrights over four days, which takes me to 32 for the year with the May trip. Three weeks without running, and at the time of writing that has kept going.

The frustrating part isn't missing the running as much as I expected. It's that I feel fit. Four days of that walking, a thousand metres of climbing at a time, and the legs were fine every morning. Whatever is wrong with the Achilles doesn't care how the rest of me feels.

Start loading it more, the physio said. So that's the job.